SAITO Takao's anti-military speech From "Nihon 100nen no Kiroku Shashin Zusetsu. Vol.3"

At the plenary session of the House of Representatives on 2 February 1940 (Showa 15), during a question-and-answer session between party representatives, SAITO Takao of the Minseito lashed out at Prime Minister YONAI Mitsumasa for his mishandling of the Sino-Japanese War. He harshly criticized the policies designed to resolve the matter, announced at the end of 1938 (Showa 13) by then Prime Minister KONOE Fumimaro, pronouncing them fraudulent, and also expressed doubts over the governing ability of the WANG Chao-ming (WANG Jingwei) Administration that the Japanese Government was maneuvering to install in the Japanese conquered territory of China. In his harangue, he went on say that it was a mistake to have laid out a grand plan for the long-range future of the nation holding up such chiming concepts as international justice, moral diplomacy, coexistence and co-prosperity, while at the same time needlessly neglecting the sacrifices of the people by using the a beautiful expression, "holy war".

The Army naturally responded to his comments with indignation, so Chairman KOYAMA Matsutoshi of the House of Representatives exercised his prerogative and ordered the last half of SAITO's speech excised from the Diet's stenographic records. SAITO was summarily referred to the Disciplinary Committee, having been admonished by his colleagues to voluntarily resign from his seat as Diet member. But he refused, saying that he could "not be true to the people of the nation" quitting simply for having had part of his speech excised from the stenographic record, given that it was supposed to be a "legislature where the freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution," adding that his critics had distorted his arguments. Nonetheless, a plenary session of the House of Representatives voted on 7 March 1940 (Showa 15) to expel SAITO.